Education politics continue tainting education sector

Former Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

Former Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion says the challenges rocking the Competency-Based Education (CBE) transitionwere predictable and avoidable.

Sossion noted that this would have happened had professionalism been allowed to prevail over politics.

Speaking on Fixing the Nation program, Sossion argues that the pain points now emerging are a direct result of rushed decisions, inadequate preparation and failure to follow established curriculum rollout procedures.

“I am not surprised with the current challenges. As Secretary General of KNUT, I directed research studies on CBC rollout and curriculum management, and I raised the loudest alarm. The gaps we warned about are exactly what the country is experiencing today,” Sossion said.

Sossion notes that the pioneer CBE cohort has moved through the system amid constant disruption—from Covid-19 school closures to incomplete preparation for junior and senior secondary transitions.

According to him, parents and learners now face confusion over career pathways, questionable placement decisions and senior secondary schools that lack capacity to offer the three pathways effectively.

“One, there is little understanding of the career pathways. Two, serious questions about placement into senior secondary schools. Three, the ability of those schools to offer the pathways,” he said.

“This is not a professional crisis; it is a governance and preparation failure.”

He recalls that during the early rollout of CBC, KNUT commissioned two key studies one on teacher preparedness and another on the summative evaluation of the pilot phase. Both, he says, revealed fundamental flaws.

“You cannot pilot a curriculum for a few months and roll it out nationally without a summative evaluation report,” Sossion said.

“Curriculum reform is a professional process, not a political one. Even Grade 10 should have been piloted before this transition.”

Sossion also claims that commercial interests overshadowed pedagogy in the new system.

“There were indicators this curriculum was foreign-driven, with business interests in consultancy and textbooks. Parents ended up bearing the burden,” he said.

Despite these flaws, Sossion maintains that scrapping CBE entirely would have been reckless. Instead, he supports the decision to review it after sustained pressure from teachers and education experts.

“When we engaged the President, we agreed there was total confusion, but throwing out the curriculum would have been catastrophic to learners. The only professional option was to review it—and that is what was done,” he said.

He points to the restructuring that kept Grades 7, 8 and 9 in primary schools renamed comprehensive schools, as a critical equity intervention.

“It kept learners closer to home and reduced the cost burden on parents. Moving them prematurely to secondary schools would have congested institutions with infrastructure dating back to colonial times,” Sossion said.

However, he concedes that implementation has been uneven, especially in teacher deployment and infrastructure development.

“The country was not prepared in terms of teachers for the new learning areas, and I cannot say we are fully prepared even now,” he said.

On funding, Sossion urges Kenyans to shift the debate from delayed capitation to accountability.

“Kenya has put a lot of money into education. The real question should be: what has that money done in our schools?” he questioned.

For CBE to work, Sossion insists, quality teachers, quality teaching and learning tools, and quality infrastructure must be met.

“Without these, pathways remain theory, and equity remains a slogan,” he said.